The region and state wrestling tournaments are on the near horizon, but the biggest wrestling week in Aberdeen this season is about to take place at Golden Eagles Arena.

Aberdeen Central hosts a triangular this evening against Harrisburg and Watertown, before hosting the annual Lee Wolf Tournament on Saturday for both boys and girls.

The Golden Eagles boys, who shared the Eastern South Dakota Conference championship last year and in 2017, have a chance to all but secure the conference crown outright with two wins tonight with one more dual remaining next week.

However, the task will be far from easy. Central, whose only dual loss came against Sturgis last weekend, had to rally to defeat Harrisburg in a recent dual.

“Two quality opponents,” said Central boys’ coach Donnie Bowden of tonight’s foes. “We got to wrestle Harrisburg about two weeks ago, and they pushed us about as far as we wanted to be pushed.”

The Golden Eagles definitely know what’s at stake this evening.

“It’s one of those things that we need to win both of these to kind of close it out,” Bowden said.

Winning the ESD is one of the team’s goals every season and a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

“That’s why we do it. That’s why we line up and we have these ESD duals. They’re all good duals,” Bowden said. “We want to win the conference, we want to win the region, and then we want to win the state.”

This week’s schedule of back-to-back duals just prior to the Lee Wolf is nothing new for Central.

“We’re going to wrestle these two quality opponents, just kind of like we always have, the way our schedule’s been since I’ve been around,” Bowden said, “and then we’re going dive right back into the Lee Wolf, and we’re going to see how we come out there.”

What is a bit unique to this year’s schedule is that the triangular before the Lee Wolf is at home, marking 72 hours of key matches right in town.

“Every third year you get those triangulars at home,” Bowden said. “It’s just the year where we got most of them at home. We’ve hardly traveled during the week this last month which is great.”

Last year’s team champion Canton is not expected to be competing this weekend, but some new squads like West Central and Redfield will. They will join teams like Watertown, Winner, Clark-Willow Lake, Miller-Highmore-Harrold and Webster as well as squads from North Dakota.

“It’s a good mix of A and B schools, and we like it,” Bowden said.

Winning a team championship at the Lee Wolf is a difficult challenge.

“We haven’t won it very many times,” Bowden said. “Canton’s always kind of been there looming. We’ve always been up in the top or right there to win it. It’s a tough tournament.”

Each year the Lee Wolf tourney, the largest wrestling tournament in the region, serves as a precursor to the upcoming postseason and gets the Golden Eagles ready for what lies ahead.

“Lee Wolf is kind of a culminating thing before we have an off week and we get into postseason. We still have a Brookings dual next week, but we understand what’s in front of us,” Bowden said. “We know we’ve had a tough month. We’ve been wrestling really hard, we’ve been pushed really hard. We’ve had a lot injuries, we have a lot of illness. But this is where we suck it up and this is where we get it done. We don’t get too many home events, so the travel is not going to be hard on us this week, but we’re ready for it. The kids are ready.”

The Golden Eagles, who are currently rated second in team points and in the state dual rankings, understand there is a big difference between competing in duals and a tourney like the Lee Wolf.

“Wrestling at home is tough in duals because you know that the kid across from knows he’s only got to wrestle for six minutes. That’s it.” Bowden said. “But wrestling in a tournament, you just kind of get caught up in being here, and doing it to where you just kind of stay focused and dialed in a little bit more, so we’ve got two different events, where we’re going to have to stay focused on what we’re doing. It’s a great lead up to the postseason.”

Central, which will also host the the first ever Region 3 girls tournament next month, will be a hot bed for wrestling fans over the next 72 hours.

“Two really quality duals that you’re going to get out of us,” Bowden said, “and then you’re going to get a lot of quality tournament matches.”

There is a lot at stake these next few days, and the Golden Eagles are looking forward to it.

“We’re excited for it. I think we’re ready,” Bowden said, “and we’re ready to put a cap on it this weekend.”